


Universal Inconstants

by Poetry



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Post-Canon, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 04:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17460902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: How the Day of Story and Song changed the Seven Birds.





	Universal Inconstants

**Author's Note:**

> Written about a year ago to a prompt by @elexuscal: "How were members of the IPRE different after the Day of Story and Song, and the return of their memories?"

**I. Davenport**

Back on his home plane, Davenport had only been a scholar as much as he had to be – you don’t get to be the pilot of a transdimensional spaceship without reading a whole lot of physics, but he read what was practical and useful for future exploration, and not much more.

But after spending so long unable to speak, to think, and getting his voice back, he became a lover of languages. As he traveled the world, he would learn a new language in every city, just for the joy of speaking in a new way, with hands or words or whistles. He had a knack for it, after all, after hearing and speaking so many languages across the planes.

Best of all, Davenport never had to say his name the same way twice, never again – it became  _Dawnpor_  or  _Daavnpooret_  or a flick of his thumbs, made new every time by a different understanding.

 

**II. Barry**

“Lup, we have neighbors,” Barry said suddenly. 

“I know, babe. I kinda noticed when we got this sweet condo in the middle of Neverwinter.”

“We haven’t had neighbors in over a century!” Barry exclaimed, springing up to sort through the kitchen. “I mean, temporary ones, sure, but not people we were going to live with long-term. I used to be real friendly with my neighbors back home. They all had a block party for me before we launched. I’d make them pie – Lup, do we have stuff for pie? Lup! Come on! We have to make a good impression on the  _neighbors_!”

 

**III. Magnus**

“It’s beautiful, Magnus,” Carey said, inspecting the carving, “but what  _is_  it?”

“It’s a khariza,” Magnus said. “You know, they’re really colorful, pretty, do courtship dances on mountaintops?”

“Is it… a bird?” Carey said, holding the wings up to her face.

“No! It’s like a bat. How have you not heard of khariza? People write poems about them and stuff.”

“No, they don’t,” Carey said slowly. “At least not in  _this_  universe.”

“Aw, shit. I went and mixed up my planes again, didn’t I. I’m sorry, Carey, I can make you an actual animal you’ve heard of.”

“No!” Carey said, clutching the carving to her chest. “It’s an animal that doesn’t even exist in our universe! That’s so cool! Tell me all about it.”

 

**IV. Merle**

One day, it rained frogs.

Mavis hid in the covered porch and half-screamed to Dad through her teeth, “What do we  _do_?”

Outside, Mookie ran around catching frogs and shrieking with delight. Mavis flinched as a frog landed with a ugly splat on the roof.

Dad bustled toward the shed. “We rake up the splattered ones and bury them in the garden. It’s good for the plants!”

“How do you  _know_  that?”

“Happened all the time on world, uh, thirty-three I think? Wasn’t a bad way to live.”

Dad said almost the exact same thing last month when a customer at the tiki bar turned into a were-sea-lion and started rampaging around the beach. That was what he was like now. He always knew exactly what to do, because he’d seen it before.

It was pretty cool, actually.

“C’mon, kids! Are you gonna help me rake these frogs or what?”

 

**V. Taako**

“Hey Ango,” Taako said to Angus after the battle. “Do you need help finding the fam or anything? Make sure they’re okay?”

Angus stared at Taako, mouth hanging open. Taako had never asked Angus about his family, not once, even though he was a little boy all alone on a secret moonbase.

“Cat got your tongue? What’s holding you back? Day you stop talking is the day the planarverse collapses, and all this battle is for nothing.”

“You’ve never cared about my family before, sir,” Angus said quietly. “Why now?”

Taako knelt to get closer to Angus’s level. “Hey,” he said. “I know what it’s like to lose your family.”

Behind Taako, Lup laugh-howled like a wolf at something Magnus was doing with Stephen.

“They forgot about me when I joined the Bureau of Balance,” Angus said quietly. “But I don’t think that made much of a difference from their typical behavior.”

Taako took Angus’s hand and straightened up. “Then screw ‘em. Your family’s here, and we’re all fine. Let’s party.”

 

**VI. Lup**

Lup never lost her memories of her home world and her hundred years of wandering, but she lost something that mattered just as much: her freedom. After years trapped in an umbrella, she was finally free from her prison, free from the shame of the Phoenixfire Gauntlet.

“So,” Lup said to the Raven Queen. “As one of your reapers, I’m authorized to go anywhere in the planar system to snatch up my soul quota, right?”

The Raven Queen’s black eyes glittered. “Oh, to catch the souls evading my mandate? I imagine you’ll have to go just about everywhere.”

Lup pulled out a dagger and sharpened her quill. “Where do I sign?”

 

**VII. Lucretia**

Lucretia never lost her memories of her home world and her hundred years on the run, but she lost something that mattered just as much: her family.

“Am I still the same?” she asked Lup, in a moment of weakness. “Am I still the Lucretia I was during our century?”

“A tough as nails stone-cold fox who knows a scary amount about absolutely everything?” Lup wrapped her arm around Lucretia. “Yeah, that sounds like the same old Lucretia.” She pulled Lucretia along. “Come on. Barry’s got the barbecue going for the block party. Are you gonna change out of those big witchy robes or what?”


End file.
